Legend of the North.

By gh22.

intro

To any one who didn't know the railroads of Alaska of today they would think of them as nothing more then fare northern lines serving small towns and mines but if you were to go back fare enough you would find that back in the day they were just as important to the then territory as they were to the lines in the lower 48 in the late 19th century.

One of these lines was the Nome Anchorage&Northren RailRoad which as it's name implies ran from Nome to Anchorage and other parts of Norther Alaska.

It is from the town of Nome a very interesting legend was borne it is the legend of how an outcast rose from rock bottom to a hero. Are story begins in the late winter of 1875.

Chapter I

The morning of January 3rd 1875 was cold and damp as usual the Nome to Anchorage main line was quite with snow nearing the tops of the rails from the storm last night.

suddenly the rails start to vibrate as a whistle blows in the distance and the draft of an locomotive could be heard then a single blinding light comes into view and as the light gets brighter the chuffing gets loader and faster and then out of the morning mist a Rogers built 4-6-0 ten wheeler comes flying past at 40MPH nodoubt heading back to Nome with a line of five Pullman's.

At the throttle was a large black an white Alaskan Malamute who looked like he had been out on the road for days with little to no sleep this particular engineer has been known for never being late and has been known to push his crew to there limits to get the job dune.

With the throttle in one hand and a pocket watch in the other he would look at the speedometer then back to his watch opening the throttle one more notch every time he then turned to his fireman a light yellow Chinook. "more wood now!" not saying a word the fireman opened the firebox door walked to the tender grab an arm full of wood then walked back over to the firebox and through the wood in closed the door then sate back into his seat box then took out his watch it red 5:45AM and they weren't due to arrive in Nome until 10:00AM and to say the lest he along with the rest of the crew were beat they had been up since 7:00PM yesterday.

"look Steel we've been out on the road since late yesterday and unlike you most of us aren't workaholics so can i at least a few mints to rest?"

Steel looked over at his fireman with a look on his face of "no sleep until the job is dune."

"that's what i thought." he said to him self as he set back to his job regulating the boiler pressure.

Back in the coaches all was quite with most of the passengers asleep except one a young red an white female Siberian husky who was looking out the window watching the flat tundra roll by she and her mom and dad and her younger sister were returning from a short vacation in Anchorage and now all she could think about was how good it would be to get home.

Just then the conductor showed up.

"morning Miss Williams." he said.

"you know you don't have to be so formal just call me Jenna."

"ok Miss Will...uh...i mean Jenna." he said caching him self.

She couldn't help but laugh a little seeing the conductor tripping over his words and then it hit her.

"I'm sorry i don't thank i got your name?"

"oh it's Star."

At that point Jenna's father woke up which got Star's attention.

"good morning Mr. Williams."

Mr. Williams stretched while trying not to wake his wife who was sleeping next to him.

"what time is it?" he said.

"it is now 5:47AM."

"good, what's are arrival time back in Nome?"

"are arrival time is 10:00AM but knowing Steel we may be there before that."

Jenna secretly groaned to her self at the mention of his name she never really liked him and yet he'd had his eye on her ever since she and her family had shown up in Nome back in 1866 one thing she had noticed about him was that he gotten the idea in his head that he is the best engineer on the road just because he has never been late and he all ways the engineer on the Railroads name Train The Anchorage Limited.

"well then im going to try and get a little more sleep then." Mr. Williams said dosing back off.

"very well then." Star said heading to the conductors compartment.

Jenna decided to try and grab a little sleep her self before they got home.

Meanwhile back in Nome despite the early hour the rail yard was a buzz of activity from mail clerk's loading bags of mail to be sent out on the morning trains too switcher's kicking car's around the yard but the main point of interest was the round house and engine servicing track.

One might not know it but the ash pit is just as impotent to steam railroad operation as the coal and water tower it's just not as glamorous or as well known as the position of Conductor, Firemen, Brakeman or Engineer in other words the job of an ash pit men is a nobody's job a job for those the Railroad doesn't trust with the operation there trains or locomotives.

Mr. Anderson an old human and the Mangier and division operator for the N,A,&,N was standing by one of the four ash pits in the yard with a Baldwin 2-8-0 waiting to have its ash pan cleaned but the worker assigned to this pit was nowhere in sight he took out his watch it was now reading 5:51.

"where the heck his he?" he said to him self putting his watch back into his pocket

"wolves you can never trust them." he said to himself

"well i better see where he is." he said walking off into the yard.

Near the depot two figures could be seen moving in the shadow of the station one looked like that of a human maybe Russian the other looked to be that of an anthro wolf hybrid.

"this is bad idea." the Russian said.

"Boris will you stop complaining." said the wolf

"ha me complaining i am not complaining but vhat I'm trying saying is zhat your going to be in hot vater if Anderson caches you."

"what ever." the wolf said making a dash from behind the station to behind a storeg shed with Boris fallowing close behind.

"you know something?"

"what would that be?"

"vhy is it that even thou you know for a fact zhat zhay vill never let you behind zhe throttle of a locomotive you still sneak off to zhe station and vatch zhe arriving and departing trains and dream of being at zhe throttle?"

"well maybe one day i will be an engineer."

the wolf said dashing behind another shed Boris running behind.

"slow down boy Boris Aleksandrovsk is no spring chicken!"

he said running up behind the wolf only to have the snow on top of the shed come sliding down on top of him when he got there.

"I'm no spring Penguin either."

he said dusting the snow off him self

at this point the wolf had positioned himself behind the shed to were he could see the arriving track at the station but unbeknown him there was someone standing right behind him but Boris noticed him and tried to get the wolfs attention.

"b.b.b.b.b.b.." the old Russian stuttered.

the wolf turned around and said.

"what the mater Boris cat got your...tongue?"

he said coming face to face to a every displeased Mr. Anderson.

"Balto what time is it?" Mr. A. said taping his boot covered foot in the freshly fallen snow.

Balto poked his head around the corner of the shed and saw the station clock.

"it's 5:53 sir." Balto said nervously

"and I'll have you know that No75 has been sitting on pit number 2 for about 10minits now!"

before Balto could retort Boris cut in.

"yes sir Mr. Anderson sir ve vill be head back to are pit now!" Boris said pushing Balto back in the direction of the locomotive servicing area.

And just before they were out of sight Mr. Anderson called out.

"IM WARNING YOU ANIU YOU KEEP THIS UP YOUR OUT OF HERE THE ONLY RESON WE KEEP YOU ON IS CUSE NOT MENY PEAPLE WOULD TAKE YOUR PLACE!"

Balto just sighed and continued back to the servicing track Boris bring up the rear.